Reply to post: Doesn't really surprise me

Forget the 'simulated universe', say boffins, no simulator could hit the required scale

Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

Doesn't really surprise me

I once heard an astronomer explain that it is already impossible to compute all possible binary images of 2048x2048 pixels, not because the code is hard to write, but because the 22048x2048 bit flips needed cannot be computed if the energy budget for computation is the rest energy of the visible universe, and the time available is the Hubble time (13.8 billion years or so). This was true even if you brought the cost of a bit flip down to the quantum limits posed by the quantum uncertainty. I would expect simulating the entire universe down to quantum scales requires a tad more that 22048x2048 bit flips.

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